Yes, Actually, There is a Huge Problem with Pink

I could just say pink is overrated, but this essay is so brilliant and nuanced, that I want everyone to read it.

“The solution isn’t to ban pink or to ridicule girls who identify more with the sparkly Leona the Unicorn Fairy than with One Crazy Summer‘s resilient Delphine, but we do need to make sure that these diverse representations exist and that they are both accessible and familiar to children. So that a girl who doesn’t care for pink won’t have to feel like any less of a girl for coveting the blue version of a toy instead of the pink, we should urge companies to use advertising that features kids of any gender playing with toys in a wide range of color themes and aesthetics. It’s silly that this isn’t already a standard practice, and for this reason we should laud businesses when they do it successfully.“

Yes, Actually, There is a Huge Problem with Pink

By Kirsten Clodfelter

One afternoon when I was out with my daughter, then nine months old, a woman stopped us to gush over my “handsome baby boy.” No worries—it’s definitely hard to determine the sex of an infant just from his or her face, and my partner’s genes, at least in regard to physical appearance, seem to be far more dominant than mine. But when I smiled and corrected this stranger, instead of laughing it off, she demanded to know why I didn’t have my little girl in pink. I must have missed that parenting memo dictating all babies be dressed in the appropriate color so that their gender is easily identifiable to any random person you might interact with for a total of 90 seconds and then never again. Apparently the blue and green floral-print outfit…